Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
寡头市场中的非线性定价：品牌偏好如何塑造市场结果
Nonlinear Pricing in Oligopoly: How Brand Preferences Shape Market Outcomes
摘要
We study oligopolistic competition by firms practicing second‐degree price discrimination. In line with the literature on demand estimation, our theory allows consumers' propensity to switch brands to vary with tastes for product quality. If low‐type consumers are sufficiently more (respectively, less) prone to switch brands than are high types, (i) quality provision is inefficiently low at the bottom (respectively, high at the top) of the product line, and (ii) informational rents are positive (respectively, negative) for high types and negative (respectively, positive) for low types. Interestingly, we show that an increase in the number of competing firms may decrease welfare (by tightening incentive constraints), so much so that monopoly may be welfare superior to oligopoly. Pure‐strategy equilibria fail to exist, resulting in price‐quality dispersion across firms, whenever the propensity to switch brands is sufficiently different across consumers types.
中文摘要
我们研究了实施二级价格歧视的企业在寡头竞争中的行为。与需求估计文献一致，我们的理论允许消费者转换品牌的倾向随其对产品质量的偏好而变化。若低类型消费者比高类型消费者更易（或更不易）转换品牌，则：（i）产品线底端（或顶端）的质量供给将出现低效不足（或过高）；（ii）高类型消费者获得正（或负）信息租金，而低类型消费者获得负（或正）信息租金。有趣的是，我们发现竞争企业数量的增加可能降低社会福利（通过强化激励约束），以至于垄断可能比寡头更有利于社会福利。当不同消费者类型的品牌转换倾向差异足够大时，纯策略均衡将不存在，导致企业间出现价格-质量离散现象。